Security News > 2021 > March > Home-Office Photos: A Ripe Cyberattack Vector

Jason Nurse, an associate professor in cybersecurity at the University of Kent, and a visiting academic at the University of Oxford, cautioned that personal photos and information shared via various online platforms used by remote workers can expose not only the employee, but also corporate networks, to threats from savvy attackers who are looking to exploit personal data.

With more workers online than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have gotten so comfortable with sharing photos and other personal information online that they may not be aware of how it can be misused, Nurse said.

Nurse posited several ways threat actors could misuse the information from the photos remote workers use on online - which are often shared with easy-to-track tags such as #WorkfromHome and #HomeOffice.

Photos and videos posted by home workers online also can expose corporate data and therefore the corporate networks to which they're connected to, he added.

Remote workers should always keep in mind what's in the background of photos or video-conference calls, and even consider using a virtual background when conducting the latter.

While people working alone in relative solitude at home may be tempted to share their remote-working set-up on various social-media platforms using a fun and clever hashtag, Nurse advised against this behavior - it's an easy way to protect personal data from being used against them.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/home-office-photos-cyberattack-vector/164460/